Tag Archives: Design Museum

“This is one of the best days of my long life.” So said Terence Conran at the ground breaking ceremony for the new home of the Design Museum at the Commonwealth Institute, Kensington.

The Museum’s leading lights – including Deyan Sudjic, the current Director, Terence, the founder, and John Pawson, the architect behind the Institute’s conversion – gathered to celebrate a new phase in the Museum’s history.

Wandering around London it’s not often you see your boss’s name in lights – unless, that is, you happen to work for the man credited for changing the way we live.

Last night Terence’s exhibition – The Way We Live Now – opened at The Design Museum – and what a treat we had in store.

From the beauty, variety, inginuity and workmanship of the pieces themselves to the quirky, exclusive typography (done by our very own Conran Studio) and show design (ref: Conran & Partners Interior Design team) the show is a triumph. Well, we would say that wouldn’t we?! But don’t just take our word for it – it’s already got some rave reviews:

Ahead of the Design Museum’s forthcoming The Way We Live Now exhibition, which opens in November, the museum have partnered with Tate Modern for an evening celebrating our Chairman, Terence Conran.

Just for a change Terence has the night off and can put his feet up and relax, leaving the hard work to others. Leading figures from the many worlds that Terence has been involved with during his career will take part in an evening of presentations and discussion, looking at the many ways which he has influenced the world we live in and the way we live our lives today.

The evening will be chaired by Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic and include contributions from Sir Christopher Frayling, Stephen Bayley and Fiona MacCarthy who will each discuss an aspect of Terence’s extraordinary career.

Stephen Bayley

Speaking of the evening, Terence says: “I’m really looking forward to the evening, if a little embarassed as I’m quite shy and don’t take compliments very easily – if that’s not a little presumptuous that the speakers will be saying nice things about me! But I admire all of them immensely and each of them have played hugely positive roles in my life so it will be enjoyable to sit back, relax and reminisce over the happiest moments of my life and career.”

We’re sure they will go easy on you Terence and you will enjoy a night to remember! Rumours that Michael Aspel will be making an appearance with his big red leather book are entirely unfounded.

The event takes place in the Starr Auditorium at Tate Modern on Tuesday 20 September from 1830-2030. To for more information and to book tickets please click here

There’s more than one cycling enthusiast in our offices and the Transport section gave us plenty of food for thought when it came to new designs and innovations in this category.

We became slightly obsessed with the videos of people using the rather unusual but very fun looking Yike Bikes

– but some were less impressed by the new ‘super commuter’ offering from Vanmoof – which while very practical (especially loving the integrated heavy-duty lock) was deemed to be slightly ugly – still, anything to stop your bike getting nicked!

In general the Graphics category was much admired, not in the least the eventual winner, the amazingly simple, almost Feng-Shui type images for a Swedish Cookery book: Homemade is Best by Forsman & Bodenfors for IKEA- carefully composed graphic still lifes that bring the ingredients centrestage.

If you missed Designs of the Year do not fret there’s an equally brilliant exhibition on Kenneth Grange (you’ll know more of his products than you think) – and watch this space for details of a very special exhibition later in the year…all about Terence!

Celebrating his 80th birthday in September, it’s entitled THE WAY WE LIVE NOW and will feature work from over 60 years including original habitat pieces, Terence’s sketches and bestselling products from over the eras.

Ever wonderered what Terence does when he’s not ‘working’? Actually, as we see from this article on his perfect weekend in The FT How To Spend It, a perfect weekend can mean quite a bit of working too…

Still, we are glad to see he seems to allow a fair amount of time for entertaining, ‘sitting outside in the garden’, building rills, perusing junk shops and buying delicious, locally sourced food to cook as well as spending Sunday with his children and grandchildren. What indeed could be more perfect….

There’s been a lot of news this week surrounding Terence’s generous gift to the Design Museum: £17.5m worth of funding for the future to help it move from its much loved but cramped location here on the Thames to the Commonwealth Institute in west London.

Terence met the PM at Downing Street on Wednesday in recognition of this major act of philanthropy.

**Sadly iPlayer only lasts for a few days so we can’t see him in anymore…!

In a nut-shell Terence believes very strongly that we can’t just be a country of Service Industries – we must continue to make things too. Something he puts into practice whenever possible – not in the least when it comes to making furniture – with his UK furniture makers Benchmark …